Soon enough, Tesla owners might not even have to look for a charging station in order to charge their cars — instead, all they'll have to do is find a bunch of pedestrians.
A company called Pavegen has teamed up with Tesla to test a charging device that charges the battery in a Tesla car through the kinetic energy from footsteps.
"The system works, but we need several hundred thousand footsteps to allow the vehicle to drive 20 minutes within London's busiest streets," said Pavegen CEO Laurence Kemball-Cook in an interview with PSFK.
OK, so the new technology might not be the most effective way to charge a car just yet — it takes "several hundred thousand footsteps" to charge the battery for just 20 minutes of driving in a Tesla Model S, so you probably can't charge your car by running on the spot unless you're a professional long-distance runner.
Of course, if the technology was implemented across long stretches of sidewalk in a big city, it could generate some serious power.
The technology is currently undergoing crowdfunding on CrowdCube, a website aimed at helping people invest in a company. At the time of this writing, the tech had reached £1,541,780, or around $2,425,112 — far more than its goal of £750,000, or $1,179,697.
Since being started in 2009, Pavegen has shown off its tech in a number of different situations around the globe. Optimal for paths with a lot of pedestrian traffic, the technology has already been implemented by three schools in the UK as well as an office entrance and in the Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia. The company also travels around the world off to show off the tech using portable versions of it, campaigning for a future where simply walking is a source of serious electricity.
After the crowdfunding period for the tech is over, it will largely be up to cities and corporate office to adopt the technology. If all goes according to plan, it will soon be a lot easier to charge your Tesla.
The news comes as rumors have been spreading of delays to the Tesla Model 3, with reports suggesting that production of the car would be delayed until 2018. Despite this, Tesla has said that the Model 3 is on track for its release in 2017.
The Model 3 will be offered as both a sedan and a crossover car and will bring Tesla's production up to 500,000 cars per year by 2020.
